Senator John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, has issued a letter withdrawing his support for funding a LGBT community center in Philadelphia. The letter, dated for Tuesday, has been circulating on social media.
It notified the leadership of the Senate subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies that Senator John Fetterman withdrew his support for the renovation and expansion of the William Way LGBT Community Center.
In the letter, he also requested that the project not be funded under the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies appropriations bill.
The purpose of the William Way Renovation and Expansion Project is to make the existing center “an inclusive, fully accessible, and welcoming space for all individuals to gather, learn, and receive support.”
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Joseph Zeballos-Roig, a domestic policy and politics reporter in Congress for Semafor, shared on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday that Fetterman told him he “1,000 percent” still supports the funding for the project. Fetterman clarified that the decision to issue the letter was made by staff. He stated that he was not involved in the process.
When reached for comment by Newsweek, Fetterman’s office emailed the following statement from the senator on Wednesday: “The William Way LGBT Community Center has been doing critical work in Philadelphia for decades. I do not believe that we should penalize this center based on events that are entirely legal among consenting adults. I have no problem with what consenting adults do in their private time.”
“Unfortunately, at the 11th hour my staff was made aware that funding for William Way, which was in the bill because I championed it, would not pass in the FY24 [Fiscal Year 2024] appropriations process.
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The choice was either to pull it or watch it get stripped out, attacked by Republicans, and ultimately killed. This is not the end of this fight, and I am going to fight for William Way to secure their funding in the FY25 [Fiscal Year 2025] appropriations process.
“I’m new here, but I wasn’t aware that Democratic values and priorities are dictated by Libs of Tik Tok.”
The letter caused a stir on social media after it was shared by the far-right conservative X account “Libs of TikTok” on Tuesday. As of Wednesday afternoon, the post had received 24,000 likes and 4,600 reposts.
Jenna Ellis, former lawyer to ex-Republican President Donald Trump, replied to the post from “Libs of TikTok” on Wednesday: “Fetterman is gonna have a better voting record than 80% of the GOP at this rate.”
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Fetterman was embraced by some conservatives after he broke from progressives in his party on key issues like immigration and the Israel-Hamas war during an NBC News interview in December.
“I’m not a progressive,” Fetterman said in the interview. “I just think I’m a Democrat that is very committed to choose and other things. But with Israel, I’m going to be on the right side of that. And immigration is something near and dear to me, and I think we do have to effectively address it, as well.”
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